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Review: Night Whispers by Alisha Rai

“I know there are killer creatures outside…
but I need you naked…now…”

Zombies may be the fad, but viral outbreaks will coil me in mortal fear. Viruses are replicating bombs that are invisible that can either be man-made or naturally occurring. It can cause recurring respiratory infections or can take over the brain (try reading about prions as your eating a cheeseburger. I dare you not to glance at the meat in fear). I want to believe that it will never, ever, never,ever happen due to diligent laboratories and vaccines but there is that tiny part (fed incessantly by authors and movies) that wholeheartedly believes in virus causing reanimation of horrific proportions. If anything else, viruses are the closest biological possibility of causing zombies.

Seriously. I’m freaked.

Welcome to the future of the world. An unknown viral agent has caused a pandemic of reanimated human monsters that the survivors have fondly dubbed “nightshadows.” Nightshadows can be imagined as reanimated humans that act on their animal tendencies to feast on any creature (I mean any creature, animals are not excluded). They are characterized by no pigment in their eyes or hair, feast on any flesh, strong (when freshly reanimated), and have translucent veined skin that reminds me strongly of spring rolls.

Our heroine is the badass, Jules. A girl with a history of being toughened from the streets and other dubious deeds. She works remotely for an underground US government agency that is determined to save the remaining popularity. Her job is search and rescue any remaining humans. Her directions are fed to her via ear chip from the sexy voice of James. So sexy that she risks her life to have him look at books via video feed. A guy who slavers over the image of books. Ding.

Jules and James have respective hidden desires for each other. She can hear him. He can hear and see her sometimes via satellite. She’s on the west coast, he’s on the east coast. They never met each other but somehow it happens. Love. Even in a horror infested environment, connections can be made.

When a hunch becomes a deadly trap, James sets out to leave his safe, underground compound to brave the night shadow infested country to save Jules, a woman he’s never even held in his arms. Oh, I sighed pretty hard at that too.

I absolutely loved this story. The writing was so well done that I could easily imagine the wasteland of the country full of nightshadows. It was easy to tense up when the characters were in situations of the possibility of danger. Even through all that, the romance portion was very well intertwined into it.

Let’s just all nod our heads in agreement that post-apocalyptic times call for survival modes. What got me pretty excited was how sexy the post apolcalyspse could be. Put aside the very scary possibility of virus infected reanimated bodies ready to gorge on you, marked decrease in national security, and the chance that you yourself may become a virus infected reanimated body, having sex in a strangers deserted house is pretty hot. Yes, the previous occupants have long dissipated into dust. Or may have been a feast. It’s the fact that there is just unbridled passion. No need to stifle screams. That just mixes a whole bunch of sexy. So damn sexy, that I had a goofy grin.

As a whole, I was enthralled from the get-go. I will definitely be adding the next book in my collection. And if your a fan of clashing mash ups like me or you dig a bit of steamy with your apocalyptic fix, then I highly recommend this read.